Long Break

Well this break I had to take from the blog ended up lasting a little longer than planned. Never though it would turn out this long, phew!

The last 6 months have been an emotional rollercoaster. We have been annoyed, in despair, relieved and angry as we had no intention to leave the US when we did and suddenly there were lots of things to take care of. Small things like notifying the landlord and breaking leases, larger things like organizing the actual move and finding somewhere to live in Cologne. And to plan for the new baby. Now looking back, I am not sure how we got through it, but after living at hotels, in furnished apartments or at friends´ for 6 weeks, we found a house to rent outside Cologne as of 1 June and our furniture arrived 2 days before Olivia was born on 14 June. Moving in Germany is never fun, on the contrary, it is really awkward and expensive. Never thought I would end up being homeless at my age but you live and learn,

Houses/flats generally come without kitchen in Germany, sometimes you have to paint before moving in, sometimes it is your obligation to do so when moving out. In our case, we had to paint just about all rooms before moving in. We also had to put down flooring in 4 rooms. Kitchen took 6 weeks to get delivered so we ended up using the grill in the garden. Without having the Weber I am not sure how we would have survived. Luckily weather was great this summer. But, all bad things come to an end, and now we are slowly accepting the fact we are back where we started and are trying to survive as parents of two little girls. Ha, this is the real challenge!

Blog will continue here Team Clarke and right now I am not sure in what language. Perhaps in Swedish with English once a week.

Moving

So blog is being very quiet. We are in the process of moving so we will be back online soon!

The Grove

Valet parking at its best...one of the best thing about the US

Happy Easter

Apart from some old tulips there is no sign of Easter in this house. All Easter chocolate was eaten days ago and apart from eggs, I have no idea what you eat at Easter. We had jacket potatoes yesterday and a yummy Italian pizza today:)

Yesterday we spent noon at the Swedish school Easter picknick and egg hunt. Emily got her second egg - I quickly swopped it to one with no candy inside. There were also semlor being offered, yum yum, I had two.

Great weather meant pool time so that is where we spent the afternoon,

Car Dealers

Took our Ford Edge to the Ford garage the other day for a service. We have a maintenance plan with them so every few months we get the oil changed and they check brakes etc. Whereas this garage was super friendly when we signed the two leases we have nearly two years ago, they are quite ignorant these days. I really dislike this about American customer service - it seems like it is becoming the standard. Once they have your money, they can´t care less about you. Don´t get me wrong, I find car dealers in all countries to be quite a pain, but at least they are nice before taking your money here. LOL

I booked the car in on Thursday and the guy on the phone said if I came in around 9am Friday morning they would have many technicians available and it wouldn´t take long, just over an hour. So at 8.55 I walked in and handed over my keys. The same lousy guy as last time asked me if I was going to come back later or if I was going to wait. Decided to wait since they seem to be a little quicker if you don´t bugger off. I also asked to speak to someone about buying the car. Lousy guy tells me he will let me know when Jim is free.
Hour later I walk up to lousy guy´s desk and he asks me if I have found Jim. Hrm."No, how can I do that if I don´t know who he is?" I realise I´ll probably wait forever for the car now, Americans don´t like sarcasm and if you are too direct. Hey ho. I get to sit down with Jim and tells him I want to buy the Edge when the lease runs out, $23K plus tax. Is it cheaper if I pay cash? What is the interest at the moment? Jim is not really interested. I get annoyed after 10 minutes and give him one of my best American smiles saying "I´ll think about it". Hell no. Had he been clever or a good sales man, he would have offered me a new lease, to buy a new car or had he just been friendly he would have looked he up in the system and taken out some paper work. Nada.  23k!!! Someone is making too much money!! I don´t ever, ever want to hear about the roaring car business again.

And the car? Well, After 2 hours I tell lousy guy I have to leave. He says they have very few technicians in that day, some other guy jumped the queue blah blah. The usual bullshit but so annoying. He reckons it is going to take another 2 hours at least. Yawn. Can't wait for the usual survey they send you after each visit.

Date Night

Another date night! Headed to Irvine Spectrum last night for some food and cinema. We went to another Italian restaurant and were initially going to see the Wizard of Oz, however, we were surprised by getting a table straight away without the normal one hour wait on a Friday night so we finished our meal a lot earlier than expected and couldn´t be bothered to wait until it started. Instead we picked Olympus has fallen, an action packed film with Morgan Freeman and Gerald Butler. I assume most of the audience thought the movie was real and it wouldn´t surprise me if one or two people cried during the last ten minutes (God bless America, we will always stick together, blah blah). A little too much for my likings. The White House gets hijacked and you know the rest, one hero, crying women and so on. Yikes.

The food? It was ok. Better than the last place but come one, hummus? Not so Italian. I don´t understand why so many restaurants feel the need to do too much with their menues. Normal pizza is fine. I don´t need fennel sausage and fancy ingredients in my salads. Nor hummus. Just plain, nice food. I rather have oilve oil with my bread than horseradish with my salami. We shared some cheese and salami for a starter which was fine, had two small pizzas and shared a salad. It passed but only just. Nice venue where you can enjoy some starters and a glass of wine with friends, but not expect too much of the food.

Yum. Starter was nice.

I did spot a new Japanese restaurant last night, where we definitely will be going very soon. The Japanese food around here is excellent, we are getting really spoiled.

Decisions Decisions

Blog is being a little quite at the moment. A lot of things are going on at the moment, we are not sure if we will be here in a few weeks time so a lot of things to organise just in case we are heading back to Germany a little earlier than originally planned. Not our call so you can imagine everything is a little durcheinander. Especially since we are expecting a fourth family member (June!).

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday they played Irish music in the supermarket and there was green cabbage on display, never seen that before, haha.

Home Sweet Home..

After arriving  back home we have been super busy sorting the car out. There was hardly any damage to ours, but it had to be brought to the garage, we got a rental for 3 weeks covered by the insurance. Luckily! United managed to break the pram so we have finally ordered a new one. Since the car eat for E has been in an accident it needs to be replaced so that is something which needs to be taken care of too. It never stops...grr. Can we rewind this Monday and start all over? Only nice thing about it is that weather is SUPERB again. Blue sky and WARM, yaaay. Perhaps summer is within reach.

Maui, HI, Part III: Road to Hana

I wouldn't recommend driving this road if you get car sick easily. Unfortunately Emily got sick on the way back, even though max speed is between 10 and 25 mph. Not great. If you like nature, this road is a must, though I think arriving in Hana was a bit of an anticlimax. The journay was better than the destination so to say.

This is what the road looked like most of the time

Black Sand Beach 

 

Plenty of waterfalls which also offered Swimming opportunities

Plenty of fresh fruit on the way to Hana

Maui, HI, Part II: Mama's Fish House

One of the big tourist attractions on Maui is the road to Hana. We were on and off about doing the trip, but thought, hey, we have a rental car for two days so let's drive there and see what the fuss is about. The road to Hana is famous for its water falls, great nature and narrow roads and bridges. It took us about 4 hours to drive there, a little shorter on the way back. One of the gems we discovered on the way there was a restaurant Emily's pediatrician had recommended: Mama's fish house. A fish restaurant by the beach. Over priced but such a lovely view.

Suberb Fish Curry

 

Lunch with a View

 Mahi Mahi with Lobster Stuffed with Crab

Mama's Fish House

Their menu mainly consist of fish, some of which we had never heard of but it was one of the few places actually offering traditional Hawaiian dishes. Food was delicious even if proces were a little steep, $40 dollars plus per dish. Kids menu was $20!!! Still, it comes with one of the best views I have ever experienced and great service (generally, I thought the service was not so great on Maui).

Maui, HI: Part I

Not sure what I expected from Hawaii, perhaps hula girls everywhere, but I have come to realise, it is Mallorca (at least Maui is) for the Americans. I think just about everyone I know here in OC goes there on vacation. Such a melting pot, Germans, Swedes and of course, we met Americans from all over the US.  Weatherwise, it was just perfect, In the 80s, nice and warm, perfect water.

Most of the big hotels on Maui are located on the west coast, ours was at the end of Kaanapali, just 15 minutes north of a small little town Lahaina and its harbour, and about 15 minutes (on foot) south of Whalers village. It is actually not a real village, more a shopping complex with some restaurants.

    Sunset sitting at the Hula grill. Whalers Village

 

Hula girls, Whalers Village.

View from the hotel room

Down the beach, Hyatt

 

Hubby admiring the view

 

The biggest tourist trap ever but a must-do: Drums of the pacific Luau. A luau is

is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast that is usually accompanied by entertainment. We booked the one Hyatt offered and there was traditional dancing, buffet. Pricey and not so great. But tourist traps rarely are:)

Anaheim Ducks

We went to see the Ducks play the other night. Last year we put a bid in for the tickets at a fundraising event for the Swedish school and we won, unfortunately the lock out came inbetween but now we finally made it. Great tickets, first row, preferred parking right outside the building. You know when you normally go to a game of any sport at a big stadium, loong queues and a apin to get both in and out. This time, nada. The Honda stadium in Anaheim was quite impressive. Felt new and modern. Don´t think hubby was impressed though when he had to fork out 10 bucks for a beer.
I think the last game of ice hockey we watched was Brynäs in Gävle a good few years ago. Eventhough ice hockey is great to watch in Sweden, the Americans are a little superior when it comes to being loud and entertain. Last NHL game was Pens in Pittsburgh, their fans are just a little more passionate than the ducks´.

Skimpy dressed girls cleaning the ice. Doubt this would work in Sweden, hihi

 

Ducks ended up winning 3-2 agains Columbus, it was a good, close game. First thing I always do when watching a NHL game is to look up how many Swedes they have. Ducks have two, the goal keeper (first is Swiss, second Swedish) and another player.

Shootings

Just happened to turn the TV on this afternoon and I see this....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/oc-shootings-college-student-attacked-randomly-police-say.html

Not far from where we live, a college student shot 3 people, randomly, before killing himself.  We were at the Swedish school but parts of it took place about 5 minutes from where we live. Luckily it happened early this morning and hubby slept in a bit because he would have taken that route to work.

Makes you wonder where he got his gun from and where we live. Until now I never lock the car, nor the door, that how safe this area is but evidently, you aren't safe anywhere.

Weekend

Saturday morning we decided to do something we rarely do - go out for breakfast. And what is better than breakfast with a view. We headed to the Rooftop in Laguna Beach and we were not just lucky to enjoy a really nice scramble but also to watch the dolphins play in the water..And what a day, fantastic weather, sunny and warm. Sooo spoiled!

 

Sunday we decided to visit the Scottish heritage festival in Long Beach. Didn´t know what to expect but needed to get out of the house and do something else than just visiting playgrounds. Plenty of Scots everywhere, or, lookalikes. Didn´t hear any other accents than Americans but it seems like there is a huge Scottish community in California. Lots of different clans. A little pricey to get in, $22 admission, $15 to park, and of course the food was not cheap either. I think we paid $10 for a beer and $10 for a hot dog. Ouch. The admission did include a visit to Queen Mary which is docked at the harbour, right next to the festival. It did feel a little European - they sold beer and whiskey at quite a few places. Last year when I went to OC fair it was easier to buy a gun than a pint.

Giant sausages. A lot bigger in reality than in the picture.

Queen Mary

Plenty of Games were going on

Date Night

Friday night we decided to try a new place, Pizza Mozza. We usually pick places for our Friday night out where we cannot take E. This place has had some great reviews and I hadn´t had Italian in the US before.

We met up with some place at this fancy place in Newport Beacht, very excited to say the least. We were a little disappointed afterwards, the venue itself was great but service was so so, and the food did not feel very Italian at all...We had the strangest bruschetta and the pizza consisted of 50% crust, even if it tasted nice (pizza, not bruschetta). Think we are done with these upscale places, more expensive but the food does not get better, on the contrary.

Plain bruschetta and bruschetta with mushrooms. Not nice.

 

Small but tasty. Too much crust though.

Robertson Blvd & The Ivy

It has been miserable weather all week - yes, even only a few days a year, we do get it - and we decided to pop up to LA to have lunch with Beth. This might sound silly but since it hardly ever rains i had to think twice before switching on the windscreen wipers in the car. When it rains here, it usually does so during night time or early morning. We have no umbrellas and I can't really remember ever needing one so it took me by surprise when we had to drive in rain.

Robertson Blvd is a great place to meet: easy to find, a couple of shops, easy to park, lots of lunch places about and close to the Beverly Center if you are in a shopping mood.

We picked the Ivy for lunch, it didn't look very busy and we got a table straight away. By the way, you get free champagne while waiting for your table. That explains the pricy menu, haha. Not sure I can justify a lobster salad for $34 dollars. Not a bad little place. No celebrities in sight but plenty of Christian Louboutain shoes and other fancy people.

Unfortunately Emily was not in an eating mood. Normally she loves eating out but this time it did not go down too well. I bet The ivy has banned childen now. I am pretty sure they have. The mess on the floor / consisting of pasta, chewed sausage, raisins and cutlery was quite serious.

Downtown LA, stuck in traffic.

The Ivy

Robsertson Blvd

A favourite - Kitson Kids!

Just outside the Kitson Kids store we saw a paparazzi hiding, he must have spotted someone. So now I know what they look like. Greasy hair, unshaved, looking like they haven´t slept for days...

Super Bowl Party

Last was all about Super Bowl so we headed down to some friends' house for a Super Bowl party. Our first! Well, first party, second Super Bowl. When Steelers made it to the final in 2008 I watched the match. I was working in Pittsburgh at the time and football is BIG overthere. People might thing it is big in SoCal, but oh no, there is nothing like it.

Ravens won over the 49ers, and the game took place in New Orleans. Not that I watched much of the game. I admit I was more interested in the half time show, this year it was Beyonce's turn. We are not big American football fans, we just tagged along for the fun.


The beauty with American football is that since the game is not continuous, you can chat as much as you want without disturbing anyone or missing much of the game (well, some fottball fans might disagree, LOL) This would be impossible when watching a game of footie (soccer).

The bar is open!

Yep, the Schlaff´s are 49ers fans

 

Some delicious food, I was still stuffed when I woke up this morning. 

Banking!

Once upon a time, I had this German friend who wanted to work at a bank. She had to take a math test and she was a little too slow for starting as an apprentice. She ended up working at a chemical lab instead but eventually got allergic to the substances she was dealing with. Instead, she went on and became a qualified assistant tax consultant. After a few years she did her bachelor degree in business and later on a bachelor professional of accounting. Today she is a CPA. There is no one I trust my numbers with more than her. I guess you can wrap it up saying that you need to be pretty good in order to work at a bank in Germany.

Now to my experience this week. I know I know, this is a neverending subject, but IT IS. It is so frustrating to be involved in any kind of banking business here.  Save money? Impossible, the interest is so LOW there is no point in  opening a cash deposit account or a saving account. They get taxed, too. Instead, the only way to make money here, seemingly, is to invest and take risks. Lower taxes too.

As you know I hate cheques, especially since becoming the treasurer for the Swedish school. I am on an ongoing mission to find new ways of payment. Anything is better than sending money by post. We have paypal (costs money!), we will accepting credit cards (costs money!!) and now we accept bank transfers. While depositing some of those damn cheques the other day, I just wanted to make sure I had the necessary information for people to start wiring us money instead. The bank teller had no idea how to do a bank transfer! Here they call it a direct deposit but not even that rang a bell. Oh no, instead I had to go and sit down with one of the managers (who was busy putting on lip stick!!). She could not give me a straight answer, but she THOUGHT routing number and accounting number should do the job. In some cases you can send money via email (what a joke, do I want to give myself more work but going in accepting these payments?)))) Seriously, someone is pulling someone´s leg here and is making way too much money through the cheques.

Anyhow, tonight I am going to transfer one dollar from my account to the Swedish school´s to see if it is working. We have different banks so that apparently makes things harder. Knock on wood.

Not sure I told you about the experience I made before Christmas. I had to draw some money out, I needed 3 x 80 dollars petty cash for the Christmas party. Itold her, in total that is 240. The reply "oh, I need to go and check, and gets her humongous calculator out of the cupboard!´". Get my point? I don´t think it takes much working at a bank here. Disregarded which one.

I will keep you posted, perhaps I will make the remarkable discovery tonight that IT WORKS. Good bye cheques!

Swea OC Annual Meeting

Thursday night it was time for Swea's annual meeting, it was my first time going.
Home made pea soup, sandwich and punch were on the menu and of course - semla. My third this week!

I am now on the board, sharing the responsibility for the program with Lisa and Anna so we have been super busy this week preparing. Not sure what I have taken on here but I think it will be fun!

 

Yummy yum yum! 

Semlor!

Baked these goodies yesterday. Took orever but it was worth it! Found the almond paste at Pavillions to the rip off price of $7, the yeast at the Italian supermarket in Tustin, 250 gram $ 0.90. Cardamom took the prize, a tiny bottle $13!! Why the heck are spices so expensive here?

Turns out my oven is not so great when it comes to baking, it heats from below so the buns got nearly burnt before getting brown. Grrrrr. Kind of ruins my plan what to do with the remaining 200 grams of yeast?

Beach Day

Weather has been a little chilly lately, we were a little puzzled on Saturday about what to do. I know I know, we are so spoiled but weather is usually so good so when there is overcast we are kind of taken by surprise!

After doing the normal Saturday stuff at home we drove down to Aliso Creek for a short walk a long the beach. It is one of my favourites; cheap parking next to the veach, playground close by, easy to get to.